Ryan Murphy is busy. Over a ten-day stretch in 2024, for example, he released four new shows: American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Grotesquerie, Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story, and Doctor Odyssey. This year, he’s also involved in Mid-Century Modern, All’s Fair, and 9-1-1: Nashville.
He’s already plotting for 2026, too. Set for some point next year is The Beauty, a new FX series that, in his words, takes on “Ozempic culture.” The show is based on a comic book series by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley.
Ahead of the show’s release, keep reading for everything you need to know before it comes to TV.
Plot
The official description of the original comic book reads, “Modern society is obsessed with outward beauty. What if there was a way to guarantee you could become more and more beautiful every day? What if it was a sexually transmitted disease? In the world of The Beauty, physical perfection is attainable. The vast majority of the population has taken advantage of it, but Detectives Foster and Vaughn will soon discover it comes at a terrible price.”
Murphy said to Variety:
“It’s something I’ve never done before, which is a sci-fi medical show about a new virus that mutates and it’s sexually transmitted, that turns you into your absolute perfect self. And the question is, how far would you go to be beautiful? What would you sacrifice to that, and does that matter? That show was looking at, I call it the Ozempic culture. One little shot, and suddenly you’re going to look better and feel better, and all your problems are going to go away. But what are you really working on? What’s going on with you that you feel you need to do that? Sometimes it is health, sometimes it’s vanity.”
Cast
The show stars Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, Rebecca Hall, and Ashton Kutcher.
Murphy told Variety that he had long wanted to work with Ramos and Kutcher. He also said to Entertainment Weekly he was “going all over the world” in 2025 to make the show, calling it “a very long shoot.” (The show filmed in New York, Paris, Venice, and Rome, per New York Comic Con.)
Murphy added:
“I’ve always written about beauty culture in my work from my very first big thing, which was Nip/Tuck. I’ve also done a lot of body horror in my work, mostly through American Horror Story. I just think that it asks that deep essential question that I always like to ask about anything: What would you do for love? What would you do for beauty? What would you do for money? It has all of those things that I’ve grappled with in my entire career, all in one package.”
Release Date
The show is set to premiere in early 2026, per New York Comic Con.
Trailer
There is not currently a trailer or teaser for The Beauty.
